Lecture and Demonstration: The Artistry of Devotion

Sculptor Paris Alexander of Raleigh and art historian Stephen Perkinson of Bowdoin College answer four questions about Object of Devotion. First: how were these sculptures made—who carved them, why did they choose this material, and how did they determine what the finished images would look like? Second: who used them, and what did the original audiences hope to get out of their encounters with them? Third: how did they travel from their original settings in late medieval churches to the galleries of the NCMA? And, finally: what are the trials, triumphs, and follies of an artist specializing in stone carving today?